Nikole Stewart
Warm up your soul this winter by making some of the best slow cooker soups. These dump-and-go cozy meals are the perfect way to combat chilly nights and take absolutely no effort. From familiar comfort foods to unique and tasty recipes, all you have to do is set it and forget it.
5. Meatball Soup
While the idea of meatball soup might be weird, it really is one of the best slow cooker soups out there. Add a bag of frozen meatballs to a slow cooker along with canned crushed tomatoes, tomato paste, beef broth, diced onions, and seasonings, along with garlic. When you’re about an hour away from eating, after letting it cook for 4 to 5 hours, you can add in your pasta. Don’t forget to garnish with Parmesan cheese.
4. Tortilla Soup
Not only is this a hearty, flavorful dish, but you can really spice it up if you want to bring the heat to combat the chill. All you need is to throw chicken in your slow cooker, crushed or diced tomatoes, black beans, corn, seasonings that you use for tacos, such as chili powder, cumin, and smoked paprika, chicken broth, and green chilis. Once your chicken is tender, after about 6-8 hours, shred it and serve it alongside lime juice, tortilla strips, and sour cream.
3. Minestrone Soup
Minestrone soup is hearty and nutritious, perfect for winter. All you need are your favorite spices along with bay leaves, vegetable stock, tomato juice, diced potatoes, diced celery, diced carrots, canned tomatoes, kidney beans, green beans, and ditalini pasta. Throw everything in your crockpot, give it a good stir, and cook for around six hours on low.
2. Tortellini Soup
There’s nothing like a good hearty pasta to make you feel cozy. Combine that with soup, and you have one of the best slow cooker soups for the winter. Tortellini soup simply combines a package of tortellini, the cheese variety is recommended, along with canned tomato soup or sauce, vegetable broth, chopped sun-dried tomatoes, and your favorite spices into a slow cooker. You only need to let the flavors combine and allow the noodles to soften, which will only take an hour at most, so it’s perfect to make after a long day.
1. Chili Mac
Some chili includes elbow pasta noodles to really beef it up. And one of the best slow cooker soups features this beloved addition. Simply toss in cooked ground beef in your slow cooker along with chili powder, cumin, smoked paprika, oregano, salt, and pepper, along with diced tomatoes, beef broth, black beans, onion, and garlic. Let all those flavors come together for about 6-8 hours, and then toss in your macaroni pasta noodles. Let that cook for another 30 minutes, then serve with cheese and sour cream.